Call me poor, call me rich

If you want a sustainable society, a friend once explained, aim to meet the needs of the poor.

As it is, our society’s basic needs systems serve the wealthy.

Take housing. In the neighborhood where I’ve rented on and off for nearly 30 years, 1000 square foot houses now go for between $630,000 and $700,000. They rent for as much as $2000/month—or as Air BnBs for $175/night. No one who works at nearby grocery stores or restaurants can afford to live here. They can only afford unreliable cars and housing far from their workplace.

Take health care. My husband’s Medicare Advantage insurance just informed him (after a handful of blood draws and diagnoses) that his policy does not cover blood tests.

Then, as the late ecological economist Herman Daly clarified, if you want a sustainable society, don’t take from the Earth faster than it can replenish; and don’t waste faster than the Earth can absorb the waste.

But mass production of anything violates these principles.

You begin to see our culture’s unsustainability.

I challenged myself to define “poor” and “rich”—and discovered I fall into every category.

IN 2025, WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE POOR?

You don’t have food, clean water, shelter, health care, soap and/or a working communication system.

You depend on energy, communications, transportation and agricultural systems that ravage the Earth during their manufacture, operation and discard.

Your government aims to meet the needs of the rich. It does not respect nature. It does not protect watersheds or other ecosystems necessary for sustaining life. Local nor federal governments protect peoples’ safety. They permit battery energy storage facilities that repeatedly catch fire and emit chemicals toxins. They permit transistor fabs and/or data centers (which demand extraordinary amounts of electricity and water) even though your region does not have sufficient energy or water.

In its mission to make land available for ores used to manufacture computers, phones, batteries, solar panels, e-vehicles and infrastructure, your government supports wars. Or, you live in a war zone.

You work for a corporation that you do not respect.

You cannot name three things for which you feel grateful.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE RICH?

You consider yourself blessed.

You have clean water for drinking and bathing.

Someone in your household knows how to cook and preserve food.

You have a fridge, a freezer and enough food for the next season.

A nearby grocery sells affordable salt, olive oil, rice, dried beans and soap.

You have meaningful work that supports you.

You’ve got a roof overhead.

You use electricity that does not require slave labor or extractions and emits no toxins, methane or radiation.

Your phone and its infrastructure did not require extractions or slave labor during manufacturing. Neither emits electromagnetic radiation. At the end of your phone and its infrastructure’s usable life, they are not hazardous waste.

You have four pairs of socks and underwear, a washing machine and a drying rack. You have reliable shoes. A table and chairs. Pots and pans.

You know kitchen table remedies for viruses and wounds.

Most nights, you sleep well.

When you’re sick, you can rest.

Your community has doctors, dentists, midwives and bodyworkers whom you like and respect—and you have money or insurance or bartering goods to cover their services.

Your schools require children to master reading, writing and math on paper before they use electronics. The schools teach gardening, composting, basic plumbing and building skills.

Within the last year, you’ve updated your will and your health care directive.

When someone in your circle needs hospice care, you can access it affordably.

You can read, and you have a public library.

You have blank paper and pens.

You have a reliable car and a trusty, affordable mechanic.

A neighbor will drive you on errands when your car’s in repair.

When conflicts arise, you know how to take responsibility for your part of the problem.

Your government aims to meet the needs of the poor. It respects nature. It respects other countries’ rights to self-determination. It provides a working postal service, a working VA, competent weather forecasters and environmental protections. It defends free speech and rigorous scientific study. It protects watersheds from mining and toxic-generating manufacturing.

You’ve saved $1000. (56% of Americans cannot cover a $1000 emergency.)

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE REALLY RICH?

You have a vegetable garden.

You enjoy gardening, cooking and doing laundry.

You or a neighbor have chickens, fruit trees and a milking goat or a milking cow.

Every day, you buy an espresso or a cup of coffee and/or a muffin.

Most of your teeth are intact.

You have reliable income, health insurance and a pension.

You own your home.

You have a computer, and you know a geek who can repair it.

You have Internet access.

You have a mobile device.

You take an annual vacation.

IF YOU’RE OUTRAGEOUSLY WEALTHY:

You can get by on very little money.

You only take work that you enjoy and that has integrity.

You have time and headspace to define “poor” and “rich.”

You feel grateful for your life.

When you pray for serenity to accept the things you cannot change, courage to change the things you can, and wisdom to know the difference, a generous god responds.

THE GREAT LAKES & STATE WATERS BILL OF RIGHTS

Check out New York Assembly Bill AO5156A, the Great Lakes and State Waters Bill of Rights, recently introduced by Patrick Burke. If enacted, this law would recognize the unalienable and fundamental rights of the Great Lakes and other watersheds in New York State “to exist, persist, flourish, naturally evolve, regenerate and be restored.” It would enshrine the right to a clean and healthy environment for all people and ecosystems within the State, and the right to freedom from “toxic trespass.” It would prohibit monetizing New York State waters.

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) helped draft this law. CELDF’s Ben Price says, “For states to take on these issues in the absence of federal action could be a game-changer”—as it was for women's suffrage.

While the Great Lakes provide drinking water for more than 40 million people, they are threatened by billions of gallons of raw sewage, toxic algae blooms, over 22 million pounds of plastic, invasive species, and historic and ongoing industrial pollution.

Andrea Bowers’ film, What We Do to Nature, We Do to Ourselves, documents the pollution of Lake Erie, the 2014 water shutdown, and efforts to protect the lake.

Recently, the Lewes District Council in East Sussex, England affirmed the Ouse River Charter, recognizing for the first time the rights of an English river.

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